On Fri, 14 May 2021 05:28:52 -0700, Ed Jaffe <edja...@phoenixsoftware.com> 
wrote:
>Reasonable people can disagree about what the word "pricey" means, but
>no one can defend the indefensible.
>
>Every Intel-based Linux, Windows or Mac, at every hardware price-point,
>can synchronize its clock with an external NTP sever in real-time
>without a reboot.

The lineage and history of the clocks and time on microprocessors is very 
different than that of the mainframe and leads inevitably to the OS needing to 
use NTP and have the OS be the Arbiter of Time.  (Do apps call gettimeofday() 
or do they read the timestamp register?  They call gettimeofday().)  

On the mainframe, we allowed (encouraged?) applications (subsystems, user apps, 
middleware) to use the TOD clock.   STORE CLOCK is an unprivileged instruction. 
 And the tradition predates the introduction of leap seconds, so everyone 
calculated the same time using the same algorithm over and over and over and 
over again.  If you have someone doing STCK, but not using CVTLSO, they're 
likely to calculate the wrong time.   At the end of the day (no pun intended), 
the TOD clock needs to be in sync with UTC.   And once that decision is made, 
it becomes an obvious waste of resources to implement an ntp client in the OS.

With ntp, if multiple servers are all synced to the same time source then they 
are, by acclamation, synced with each other.  But that's not good enough since 
there are lots of places with TOD clock or TOD clock-based  values.   They need 
to be on the same time line.

>For the high six-figure price we paid for our z15, it should have come
>with similar functionality built-in, but didn't.
>
>IBM's current positioning in this regard, as Dave Gibney and others
>discovered, is a source of embarrassment for the platform.

Help me with this, Ed.  Did you receive a proposal that didn't include STP?  Or 
at least offer it as an option?  If it wasn't offered, that bothers me.  IMO, 
all proposals should include cryptos (where not prohibited by law), a pair of 
copper OSAs, six or more fiber OSAs (speed and type customer choice), a pair of 
RoCE cards, STP, STP links, and a pair of HMCs (unless you already have them).  
 If it's an IFL box, then add some FCP adapters.  Getting this stuff in the 
initial sale is going to be cheaper than adding it later.

Then if the client wants to reduce the price by redlining items, that's on 
them, but I think IBM or the BP should be bringing a full function proposal.  

Alan Altmark
IBM

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